Home Prices in Three Bay Area Counties Near the Million-Dollar Mark

If home prices in certain parts of the Bay Area continue their steady rise, even more buyers will find themselves staring at seven-figure price tags in the near future.

Strong appreciation over the past year has pushed the median single-family home price to nearly $1 million in three western Bay Area counties, according to the California Association of Realtors’ February home sales and price report.

Marin County boasted the most expensive homes in California last month, with a median sales price of $983,690. San Mateo County came next on the list at $965,000, followed closely by San Francisco, where the median sales price was $964,670. Those three counties were the only ones in the state where the median price was more than $900,000.

Growth in San Francisco was buoyed by a remarkably strong February, in which prices jumped about 29 percent from January, more than 10 times the month-over-month gains seen in Marin and San Mateo counties. Year over year, prices are up nearly 29 percent in San Francisco, 21 percent in San Mateo, and 14.5 percent in Marin.

The median sales price for a home in the nine-county Bay Area ticked up 7.1 percent from the previous month to finish February at $675,000. In that same time frame, the median home price in California fell to $404,250, a month-over-month decline of 1.6 percent.

Monthly home prices in Santa Clara County grew by 9.6 percent in February, boosting the median price to $801,000, the fourth highest in the state. Prices increased by 4.4 percent in Alameda County, followed by Contra Costa (3.4 percent), Marin (2.5 percent), and San Mateo (2.3 percent) counties.

Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties experienced slight to moderate home price deflation from January to February, though year-over-year prices in the latter two regions are still up more than 20 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale across the Bay Area expanded modestly. The months’ supply of inventory across the nine counties climbed from 2.8 in January to 3.2 in February, but it was still well below the state average of 4.7.

The inventory crunch eased from January to February in every Bay Area county except for Contra Costa. Santa Clara County had the lowest MSI in the state at 2.5, trailed by San Mateo (2.9), Contra Costa (3.0), and Alameda (3.1) counties.

Consistent with data compiled in Pacific Union’s February 2014 Real Estate Update, buyers in every county across the region were quicker to snap up homes than they were the previous month. Santa Clara and San Mateo counties were the two fastest-moving California markets in February, with homes lasting on the market an average of 19.8 and 20.8 days, respectively.